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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. Did you ________________ the meat?
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  18. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  19. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  23. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. wound — an injury
  3. march — the month
  4. scale — size or range
  5. cold — not warm
  6. march — music
  7. scale — in music
  8. cold — an illness
  9. hand — in cards
  10. wound — an injury
  11. season — to add flavour
  12. hand — help
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. rule — to rule out
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. march — the month
  17. rock — music
  18. rock — to move gently
  19. rule — a law
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. rock — a stone
  23. rule — government
  24. season — in sport

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com